adminDalphine Tagwireyi Sports Reporter
FORMER Zimbabwe Cricket employee and former franchise cricket side Southern Rocks area manager Julia Ndlovu quietly passed on on 30 December and was laid to rest at West Park Cemetery in Bulawayo on 2 January. Ndlovu, who battled a long illness since 2011, breathed her last five hours after her daughter’s nuptials.
Ndlovu had acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Sporting Science from the Zimbabwe Open University and in 2000 began her lectureship career at Joshua Mqabuko Polytechnic in Gwanda.
However, at the start of 2006 she left the academic arena, to serve her passion, cricket. She put together a team that foresaw and pioneered the opening of the Zimbabwe Cricket offices in Gwanda.
After a few months Ndlovu retraced her steps back to Bulawayo to the ceremonial home of cricket, Queens Sports Club, where she was ZC Westerns area assistant manager serving under Joshua Paul.
The interim executive of Zimbabwe Cricket led by Paul Chingoka in May 2006 announced that it had dissolved the existing five provinces and replaced them with 10 new boards.
This saw her appointment to chair the Matabeleland South Provincial Cricket Association in June 2006. She was stationed in Masvingo because Manicaland, Masvingo and Midlands were dissolved.
Ndlovu was tasked to create provincial cricket administrative structures with the ZC mission of spreading the game to all corners of the country without regard to race or creed.
As fate could have it, Ndlovu suffered a stroke in 2011 which left her partially disabled affecting the left side of her body, and she could not resume her duties.
Ndlovu was then constantly in and out of hospital as her left arm and leg gave away and was paralysed on the left side of her body.
Tafadzwa Dube, who is Ndlovu’s son-in-law said that though she had legalised his union with his wife, it hurts him and his family that she passed on the very day they had been celebrating with her.
“With the wedding reception at 1pm, she passed on at around 6pm and we only got to know about it at around 7pm, it was painful and words cannot describe the loss our family is going through,” said Dube.
Dube added that Ndlovu was suddenly taken ill on 20 December and seemed to have recovered but, however, she unfortunately passed on.
Ndlovu is survived by her daughter Hazel Ashla Dube and her grandson Ethan Dube.
“We can only belatedly say: ‘May her dear soul rest in peace. Cricket, especially in Bulawayo, will be poorer without her.”’
Online Reporter